Legend has it that hobos who were lucky enough to come across a whole chicken devised a way to cook the whole chicken over a camp fire using a half-full can of beer. The beer can was placed in the hot coals of a camp fire and the internal cavity of the dressed whole chicken was inserted over the beer can. The beer can supported the chicken in an upright position over the coals while it cooked. The steam created by the boiling beer, which poached the chicken from within, kept the chicken moist and added flavor. Using this age old practice, various poultry cookers have been developed with a vertical support element containing a reservoir for liquid seasonings, such as beer and wine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,602 discloses such a vertical roasting apparatus for poultry or meat. The apparatus includes a shallow roasting pan, a cantilevered clip member and a vertical, hollow glass support cone. The glass support cone contains a reservoir in which liquids, such as water, wine or other flavoring agents are placed. The poultry to be cooked is placed vertically on the glass support cone. During cooking, the liquid in the reservoir steams and poaches the poultry from the inside while fat from the poultry drips into the roasting pan. In an alternative embodiment, the roasting pan has a bell shaped opening which supports the glass support cone.
The roasting apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,602 suffers from several drawbacks. For example, the use of separate, detachable components which are intricate in design makes the apparatus costly to manufacture. Also, the detachable components can be lost or destroyed thereby rendering the apparatus ineffective. Other vertical poultry cookers having these same or similar disadvantages are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,821,904 and 5,893,320.
The poultry and meat cooking apparatus of the present invention overcomes the drawbacks associated with prior poultry roasters by providing an integrated cooking apparatus which is less costly to manufacture and which contains no detachable parts that may be lost or destroyed.